As Races End, Tea Party Plans for Next Phase

Summit Set for Newly Elected Officials

Members of the Tea Party Patriots attended a rally Tuesday on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The group is planning a post-election summit.
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By

Jennifer Levitz,

Cameron McWhirter and

Douglas A. Blackmon

Updated Nov. 4, 2010 12:01 am ET

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.—Tea-party leaders, cheering as some of their movement's most prominent figures won U.S. Senate seats in Kentucky and Florida, said Tuesday's elections were only the beginning of their quest to transform government.

"Things look good for tonight," said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, an umbrella group that says it has 2,800 local affiliates around the country. "No one in this movement is stopping today. This is not an endgame. This is just a beginning."

Tea-party victors included Republican Rand Paul, who claimed the Senate seat in Kentucky, and the GOP's Marco Rubio, who defeated former Gov. Charlie Christ and Rep. Kendrick Meek in Florida's three-way race for Senate.

Movement losers included Christine O'Donnell, the Republican Senate candidate in Delaware, whose comments about witchcraft embarrassed some in the movement, and Republican Carl Paladino, who lost his bid for governor of New York.

Early results signaled that despite some losses, the movement was on its way to becoming a major force in Washington and on the national political landscape. Ahead is a chaotic period as the movement's factions compete to set the agenda and influence the ranks of new members of Congress.

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One of the most prominent national tea-party groups, Tea Party Patriots, announced plans for a summit of newly minted officials in two weeks while Mr. Paul said he would convene his own similar gathering as soon as possible.

In an op-ed article in Wednesday's editions of The Wall Street Journal, major tea-party figure Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) called on newly elected officials to hew to the movement's priorities as they decamp to Washington. "When you are in Washington, remember what the voters back home want—less government and more freedom," wrote Mr. DeMint. "Put on your boxing gloves. The fight begins today."

Ms. Martin said Tea Party Patriots is finalizing plans for a summit and "orientation" Nov. 14 in Washington for all freshman members of Congress. Newly elected officials will meet "face to face" with 200 or more local tea-party coordinators from around the country, she said. Her group is working on a legislative agenda to present then. The focus: Balance the federal budget; and repeal "100 percent repeal" of the health-care overhaul.

Tea Party Patriots co-founder, Mark Meckler, is hugged by his mother, Elaine Meckler, following a rally on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol on Election Day.
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"We're going to talk to them about what we expect from them," she said, "and what they can expect from us if they don't uphold our core values."

Across the country, tea-party activists gathered in churches, living rooms, fraternal lodges and bars awaiting the results of more than a year of grass-roots organizing. Almost uniformly they said they remained wary of everyone in Washington—including their own candidates.

In LaGrange, Ga., 65 miles south of Atlanta, the local tea-party group already was organizing a post-election letter campaign to remind new officials to not cozy up to the Republican establishment.

"Come January," said Ellen Gilmore, a 69-year-old retired dental hygienist, "We'll be all over them like dew in the cotton fields."

In Kentucky, Mr. Paul, the son of libertarian icon Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas) led his Democratic opponent, Jack Conway, 56% to 44% with 97% of Kentucky precincts reporting, according to data provided by the Associated Press.

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"There is a tea-party tidal wave coming to Washington," said Mr. Paul, a 47-year-old eye surgeon, after voting Tuesday morning at an elementary school.

"Both parties let us down," he said. He added that, if elected, his first objective would be to secure a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget.

Mr. Paul said Tuesday that he won't compromise his positions regarding the deficit once in Washington and plans to organize his own meeting of victorious tea-party candidates to plan the best way to achieve the movement's agenda.

In Nevada, leaders of the Tea Party Express, which poured more than $1 million into Republican Sharron Angle's bid to unseat Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, holed up in a "war room" in a suite at the Aria casino and hotel on the Las Vegas strip.

The group endorsed Ms. Angle in April when she was polling at 5% in the Republican primary and appeared to have no shot at her party's nomination. Tea Party Express, another prominent national tea-party group, spent heavily on advertising and assigned operatives to operate a separate campaign on Ms. Angle's behalf during the primary.

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The race now is the marquee battle for the organization, which also heavily backed Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller in Alaska and Ms. O'Donnell in Delaware.

In late polls during the campaign, Ms. Angle had inched ahead. But in the final days, Mr. Reid was getting aid from Democrats across the country for a huge get-out-the-vote effort to mobilize loyal supporters. "There's no question this race is iconic and symbolic of the tea party movement versus the establishment," said Tea Party Express spokesman Levi Russell. " There will be many victories tonight. We just hope this will be one of those victories. The next election cycle starts tomorrow and we'll move over to that."

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